Oriental Magpie Robin with Katydid and Leaf Hopper on Monkey Jack Branch 1778
sheikhzainaldin
minneapolisinstituteofart
drawing, watercolor
drawing
water colours
asian-art
watercolor
watercolour illustration
botanical art
watercolor
"Oriental Magpie Robin with Katydid and Leaf Hopper on Monkey Jack Branch" is a 1778 watercolor painting by Sheikh Zain al-Din. This painting exemplifies the detailed style of Mughal naturalism, characterized by precise depictions of flora and fauna. The painting showcases an Oriental Magpie Robin perched on a branch of a Monkey Jack tree with two insects, a Katydid and a Leaf Hopper, prominently displayed. This meticulous attention to detail and lifelike representations of the subjects showcases the artist’s skillful observation and mastery of the medium. The painting is a testament to the artistic and scientific advancements of the Mughal era, where art and natural history intertwined to create stunning and informative works.
Comments
The famed ‘Impey Album,’ to which these 11 natural history studies originally belonged, marks the beginning of a new school in the canon of Indian Painting: that is “Company Painting’’—so called after the British East India Company, which by 1757 had taken effective rule over the sub-continent—spanning from c. 1760-1880 and distinguished by native painters adapting to the needs of Colonial tastes. The result was an emergence of a distinctive Anglo-Indian aesthetic, which we see in the remarkable paintings here. Between 1777-1783, Lady Mary Impey, wife of the recently appointed Chief Justice of Bengal, Sir Elijah Impey, commissioned three artists: a Muslim, Shaik Zain ud-Din, and two Hindus, Bhawani Das and Ram Das (all of whom trained in a Provincial Mughal atelier in the neighboring city of Patna) to record the newfound wonders of her Calcutta aviary and menagerie.
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